I was watching an AI read my own book back to me. Three chapters in, it mentioned our cat, Taffy. Taffy wasn’t anywhere in the visible text. He was in the alt text.
Gemini was reading the accessibility tree!
…And that’s when I realized we have a problem.
On Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 4:15pm EDT, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed an Interim Final Rule for public inspection (IFR). It was scheduled for official publication on May 11 – the same day the original compliance date was set to take effect.
I want to talk about what’s in that document. Not the deadline. The document.
The UK government is currently consulting on changes to how assistive software is funded through Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). The consultation closes on June 18th, 2026.
You should know about it, because while the consultation identifies some real problems, it’s targeting the wrong cause – and disabled students are likely to absorb the consequences.
Thirty-five years after the Capitol Crawl, people still discover accessibility like it’s breaking news.
“Nobody told me.”
I believe them.
And that’s the problem.